10 personal development tips for busy women

How do you make time for personal development when you have a million and one things to juggle on a daily basis?

Actually, finding ways to learn and develop yourself doesn’t have to take up so much time –  and there many enjoyable ways to enrich your mind for self-growth. Here are 10 personal development tips for busy women.

1) Ask more questions 

Having an inquisitive mind enables you to learn a lot every day, without very much effort. Asking questions helps you access fascinating insights that you would not have come across otherwise – even in areas you think you know well.

Questions are powerful because they can help you uncover the success stories of people you admire, and help you discover what motivates them.

As you listen to a friend or experienced mentor, you might find that the information you get is just what you need to overcome personal challenges, advance in your career, or find inspiration for your own goals. 

2) Set small, realistic goals

What’s the best way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed at the thought of personal development if you only focus on the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.

However there’s a better way to approach self-improvement – and it’s by setting small, realistic goals and chipping away at them every day. Here’s an example: if you’d don’t read much but would like to read more, set the goal of reading a book a month, not a book a day.

Bite-sized goals will get you excited, and because they are easier to achieve, they’ll boost your confidence in your abilities. 

3) Read a little each night

Speaking of reading – you can incorporate personal development into your daily routine by doing a little bit of reading before bed, even for 15 minutes. Reading can help calm your mind and leave it with a nourishing thought before you go to sleep.

If you make reading before bed a habit, you’ll be amazed at the things you can learn in the last few minutes of the day. Most of the top books on personal development make great bedtime reads because they are based on empowering stories and encouraging advice.

When you’re transported into another person’s world for a few minutes, you come back with a lot of valuable lessons that can enrich your life. 

4) Look up words you don’t know 

I look up words on my dictionary app multiple times a day, usually when I read a book or an article and come across words that I don’t know the meaning of. I highly recommend it, because it’s a great way to learn and expand your vocabulary.

Many times we just ignore words we’re not familiar with – but there’s so much value in taking the time to search them up. You’ll do more than improve your reading comprehension  – you’ll also become more sophisticated in your writing and speech. 

5) Sign up for newsletters

If you’re too busy to constantly explore new sources of knowledge all the time, why not let the knowledge come to you? One of the easiest ways to do this is by signing up for the newsletters on your favourite blogs, including this one.

Signing up to a newsletter enables you to regularly receive little chunks of inspiration or information that can help you improve various areas of your life. It’s a great way to get a constant stream of interesting material and set your learning on autopilot. 

Moreover, newsletter subscribers usually also get VIP access to new content and freebies that are not available anywhere else.

6) Learn from nature

Do you make the most of time spent outdoors? Reflecting on nature and finding peaceful moments to mediate is an important way to boost personal growth.

In fact, scientists have discovered that being in nature has a profound effect on our brains and behaviour, and that time spent outdoors helps increase our attention capacity, creativity, and ability to connect with people.

Engaging in activities such as hiking, watching a sunset, or going for a walk in a park can improve your mood and deepen your appreciation for the simple pleasures in life. 

7) Learn a few words in a new language every day

Learning a new language can be an exciting endeavour and a concrete goal that you can work toward every day. You can start off by learning simple phrases and introductions, which will enable you to have basic conversations in that language.

Downloading a language app can help you discover new vocabulary and stay motivated with learning. As you complete exercises and score points, the language learning process becomes more of a fun game.

Watching movies in a foreign language or listening to kids audiobooks are some other stress-free ways to learn a new language quickly. 

8) Learn from your mistakes 

One of the biggest ways to continually improve is to learn from your mistakes. Since we’re always making mistakes, there’s no end to the potential for self-improvement.

People with intrapersonal intelligence are reflective, and take time to analyze their thoughts and actions. Thinking about ways in which you could have better handled a situation will help you get more satisfying results in the future.

Of course, you don’t want to linger on past experiences in a negative light, but being self-aware can make sure you don’t make the same mistakes again. 

9) Create a vision board 

Approaching your goals from a creative mindset can help you develop a love for self-improvement.

Creating a vision board can help you channel your energy more productively and create a visual representation of your goals. It also helps you turn personal development into an ongoing project, because it makes you set clear intentions based on a lifestyle you want to achieve.

Although the process of creating a vision board requires an initial investment of time in terms of planning, after that it becomes a daily reminder of your goals and dreams. 

10) Be patient 

Last but not least, be patient with yourself. Don’t expect overnight results. Developing yourself to reach your goals is a gradual process, and the best thing you can do to see results quicker is to stay persistent.

Persistence is a key layer of the famous success iceberg that propels you towards a life you love. The more observant you are, the more you’ll discover opportunities to learn, grow and improve.

Then personal development will seem less like work and more like a beautiful, lifelong endeavour. 

Roli Edema is a personal development author and digital marketer. She runs the blog roliedema.com where she shares useful insights to help individuals reach their personal, career, and business goals. 

Photo by Fernando Brasil